Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

🌋🏹🐷 This is it. The wag of all wags. The waggiest wag to ever wag. The final wag. But this one’s for you, Waggers—so we’re diving into the WagBag one last time. Schrödinger’s cat, Pompeii, volcanoes—oh my! We’re tackling everything from gulags to the greatest literary whodunit of all time: Did Shakespeare actually write his own plays? (Or was it, like, some guy named Francis?) And because no fa...

🎞️🪖🤡 The incredible Bill Hader drops by Office Hours to dig deep into film, philosophy, and all the weird stuff in between. He breaks down how Taxi Driver and The Thin Red Line made a mark on his psyche, why horror movies are masters at playing with tension, and how directors like Sam Fuller and Terrence Malick weave big existential questions into their work.   Bill and Stephen also dive into th...

🐢🎸🌆 Paul and Stephen’s Q&A at Harvard! Megaliths! French comics where Gauls endlessly pummel Romans. Paul’s unexpected relationship with the theremin. And the big question—should Paul and Stephen finally start their paranormal blues band? Theremin, guitar… what more do you need? Let us know in the comments if you’d give that album a listen. Plus, will today’s skyscrapers become the megaliths of...

🗿🗿🗿 Live from the hallowed halls of Harvard University, Paul and Stephen tackle one of the universe's greatest enigmas: monoliths. What's the deal with Stonehenge? Why were mysterious bodies buried nearby? Are aliens behind these stone wonders, or is it just really bored Druids? Paul’s got theories—and a suspicious amount of insider knowledge. Did he really climb Stonehenge? And how in the worl...

🏴‍☠️🍔🥶 Join Paul and Stephen for a double feature that kicks off with a dip into the Wag Bag! Dave writes in about the May Day Mystery, which somehow spirals into airtime pirates, the Max Headroom hijacking, the Ashtar Galactic Federation, and the meaning of this entire podcast (yes, we go there). Then, DEVO co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh crashes the party to talk time travel, AI, Neuralink, and—...

👽🛸👾 Brace yourself for an intergalactic Chinwag as Professor Asma brings you into Office Hours to take on the ultimate extraterrestrial thought experiment: how would we deal with aliens? From UN protocols and risk management strategies to spotting laser pulses and heat signatures, they explore the practical, the philosophical, and the downright bizarre. Stephen looks at sci-fi classics like HG...

🧜‍♂️👻👹 Paul and Stephen hit Town Hall in Seattle for a wild audience Q&A. Paul’s crowned King of Neptune, a Brooklynite gets deep with hardcore Buddhist philosophy, and Bigfoot? He’s back—and Stephen’s sure he’s still out there, buried somewhere. Fans fire off questions about ghosts, cryptids, mermaids, and Guillermo del Toro…  Later, Stephen drops a demon-hunting masterclass in Office Hours, f...

🧜🦕🦇 Live from Town Hall Seattle, Paul and Stephen venture into the Pacific Northwest’s strangest and creepiest cryptids. What’s the deal with Batsquatch, the massive winged terror spotted near Mount Rainier? Or the Gumbaroo, a rubbery bear-like creature rumored to explode during forest fires? They also unearth the legend of the dog-headed saint—how does it stack up on the ultimate creepiness te...

🎆🎆🎆 To ring in the New Year, we’re celebrating with a special encore featuring Natasha Lyonne, where the conversation takes a wonderfully strange and quantum-tinged turn. Paul and Stephen read a letter from a very interesting Wagger before they follow Natasha around her home, feed Rootbeer the dog, and uncover her unusual bedtime habit: falling asleep to quantum physics audiobooks. Hear why dis...

🥳🎁🎄 This holiday season, we’re looking back at one of our favorite guests of 2024, with an encore incomparable Paul Rudd recorded live from Brooklyn! Two Pauls and one Stephen dive into fears, phobias, and weird childhood memories, exploring everything from stage fright to public speaking. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Chinwag without creepy puppets, recurring nightmares, and tales of real-life b...

🐰👣😱 Paul and Stephen welcome back Ian Simmons from the Fortean Times for another dive into the eccentric, the uncanny, and the downright bizarre. In this episode, the trio explores everything from conspiracy theories’ transformation from quirky fun to dangerous obsession, to the KLF’s wild antics, including burning a million pounds and wielding fake machine guns. They also venture into giant ra...

🤖🎞️🧬 Transcend into Office Hours with Professor Asma as he breaks down the consciousness of artificial intelligence through the lens of iconic films. He examines how movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina, and After Yang tackle the question of whether AI can truly possess consciousness—or even the will to exist—delving into emotions, desires, and memory. Do you need language to be conscio...

📺🤖🧐 We’re dipping into the Wagbag as Paul and Stephen kick off a fascinating journey into the Twilight Zone, sparked by a letter from Christopher! Join the lads as they share their favorite episodes like “Time Enough at Last,” “To Serve Man,” and “The Eye of the Beholder,” and celebrate the genius of Rod Serling. The conversation broadens to explore early Hollywood television, highlighting Serl...

🦃🎞️⏳ As we approach Thanksgiving, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations with the legendary Tom Hanks. Paul, Stephen, and Tom discuss the speed of information, ChatGPT, cognitive dissonance in AI, and even question the use of Waze to beat traffic. How have our memories changed since the advent of cell phones? Are acting skills useful when it comes to writing a book? Plus, Tom still r...

🤖🔭😱 Join Paul and Stephen for a double feature that kicks off with a captivating letter from Bree, who’s asking a question that takes us back in time: What happened to the Neanderthals? Were they victims of cannibalism, or was it something else entirely?  Then, as a bonus, they continue their mind-expanding conversation with Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb! Together, they dig into how artif...

🌌☄️☠️ In this third and final installment, Paul reads aloud the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft.  So far in our reading, we felt the creeping dread as the Gardner farm transformed under the influence of a sinister meteorite. Strange colors, twisted vegetation, and a growing sense of madness gripped Nahum Gardner a...

🌌☄️☠️ In this second of three hair-raising installments, Paul continues reading the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft. As we return to the shadowed countryside west of Arkham, the strange events at the Blasted Heath intensify. Following the meteorite crash on Nahum Gardner's farm, unnatural transformations have begu...

🌌☄️☠️ In this first of three spine-tingling installments, Paul reads aloud the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft.  Set in the remote, shadowed countryside west of Arkham, the story takes us to the desolate Blasted Heath, where strange things have begun to take root. After a mysterious meteorite crashes on Nahum Gard...

👽🤖👀 Get ready for a mind-bending special episode of Chinwag, where Paul Giamatti and Steven Asma dive deep into the future and the search for alien life with Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb!  But that's not all—Dr. Loeb also takes us on a cosmic journey through his cutting-edge research on interstellar objects and alien space trash. Could we be on the verge of discovering ancient tech from...

🧙‍♀️🐈‍⬛🧪 What kind of mischief were the Windsor witches into? Were they shapeshifters? And what’s the deal with black cats? Professor Asma dives into the infamous stories of witchcraft and witch trials, exploring the dark, mysterious history behind them.  The Professor sheds light on the use of Voodoo dolls within witchcraft, while also breaking down real-world, practical theories about the Sa...

🪄🪄🪄 Recorded live at Spotify Studios: get ready for a spellbinding adventure as Paul and Stephen dive into the mystical world of alchemy and black magic with Lodge 49 creator Jim Gavin! Ever heard of the shadowy figure Comenius or the immortal legends of like Joan of Arc and Saint Germain?  Well, buckle up because we’re throwing in scorpios, the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, and, of course, a...

🧙‍♂️✨👺 Join Paul and Stephen on a wild ride through forgotten lore, secret societies, and the mystical world of alchemy recorded live at Spotify Studios in Los Angeles! Our hosts join forces with special guest Jim Gavin, creator of Lodge 49 and novelist extraordinaire. The trio unravels the hidden links between the Masons and the Templars, delving into their evolution from Europe’s first banker...

🐲🐲🐲 Join Paul and Stephen for a wild, off-the-rails Q&A session at their live taping in Portland! Brace yourself as they tackle burning questions like: What will future myths look like? What exactly is a eunuch? And which creature made its debut in cave paintings? Things get Freudian fast—yes, that kind of Freudian—and just when you think it can’t get weirder, the conversation turns to John Mac...

👿👿👿 Recorded live from Portland’s Revolution Hall, Paul and Stephen are back with part two of their deep dive into myth and mayhem! This time, they unravel the wild legend of the Minotaur. Starting on the ancient Island of Crete, they trace the rise of King Minos, Queen Pasiphae’s bizarre infatuation with a divine bull, and the birth of the fearsome Minotaur, Asterius. You’ll get the full story...

🦄🪄🦏 Welcome to another thrilling episode of Chinwag recorded live at Portland's Revolution Hall! Today, Paul and Stephen dive into the enchanting world of magical creatures and cryptids. We're talking platypuses, narwhals, and, of course, unicorns!  Paul reveals the unicorn’s ancient roots, the laziness of the chimera…and that unicorn horn was the first Viagra (really!?) And….is the narwhal’s h...